Always my official start to the convention year, MinamiCon rolls around once more in time-honoured tradition. No other event is as much of an institution as turning up to that Novotel lobby to already see crowds of familiar faces like we never left it the previous year!

A much more relaxed event than most in recent memory, as if there was a collective LETS TAKE A BREAK FROM RIDICULOUS COSTUMES FOR ONCE and I think it was a good move, certainly meant I wasn’t running around like a headless chicken for once! Still plenty of lovely costumes to take pictures of at leisure, and I think overall comfort levels were higher for it. This year the convention started earlier and finished later, crammed a lot more events in, and ran a chillout kotatsu lounge after the closing ceremony, filled with makeshift kotatsus, duvets, pillows, and many, many games. Probably one of my favourite Minamis to date.

My first venture towards the Telford venue for the newly rebranded MCM ComicCon, and a thoroughly good time it was. Only a single day deal, but large enough and popular enough to be worth a visit, plenty of nice costumes on show, yet small enough to be cosy and relaxed as an event. Perfect way to start the 2013 con season.

It gives that extra bit of hope for the year to come, it’s easy to feel a lot of love for the things being cosplayed, it’s not done for attention or fame or anything other than dressing up as something ridiculous that you have a passion for!

Who would’ve thought moving home and starting a new job would eat so much time? Finally the time has been found to sit down and spend some quality time with a shuttle wheel. Here’s the third Cosplay Cascade video featuring cosplayers out and about the Keele University campus at AmeCon 2012! Due to the building works and general faff it’s not got the amazing scenery and variety I had planned but hey, at the end of the day it’s about people in brightly coloured costumes throwing things at each other. I think.

More lessons learned, and the steadicam had gained a loose screw which went mostly undetected but now has been found and severely punished, hopefully I won’t have the same troubles next time!

As an offshoot there’s a quickish video made entirely out of Avatar cosplay footage, that’s just how big the groups were over the weekend! That can be found on YouTube here.

2012’s summer con has come and gone, AmeCon returned to the luscious Keele University for a second time, only to find it was vastly lest luscious due to a massive amount of building works running hideously over schedule. Duly crossing off about 80% of the locations from my photo map it was very difficult to find new places to get photos and video without background ugliness D:

On top of that, the main meeting point was a mess of rubble and industrial fencing so getting around and finding gaggles of cosplayers was a lot more difficult than usual. Kind of the same issue I had at Expo, the extra time taken to find people and drag them off to usable locations then ferry back and find more ate most of my day leaving not a whole lot for the actual photography part.. In other words, I’m not happy with the variety of costumes I caught again, I need to acquire more minions. Any volunteers?

Nonetheless! We all tried our best and the above issues – which I was ready to declare the ruination of the entire con when I found out – did not daunt congoers from making the most of it and enjoying the hell out of the weekend anyway. Sometimes all people need is an excuse to meet up and prat about in costume!

Thanks to all who did hunt me down, apologies to all who tried and failed, and a shoutout to the awesome Avatar groups formed on Friday and Sunday, it’s been a long time since I’ve had that much fun with a group and the numerous bending toys I came up with got a fair bit of use! Although I was so busy setting them up I think everyone ELSE got more shots of them in use than I did :p

Finally, congratulations to the lovely Refira for taking the second UK representative slot for EuroCosplay 2012 with her Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, she’s been making amazing costumes for as long as I’ve known her and it’s wonderful to see one getting some recognition, in the face of some fierce competition no less!

Just quick note for AmeCon goers this August, if you’re hoping for photos in the glorious Keele Hall, they’ve announced some timeslots for us! 11am-3pm on Friday and 10-12pm on Sunday, there’s a wedding that has booked the hall on Saturday so please don’t disturb them.